I'm hoping someone can help me with this issue related to our McArdle ancestors. I recently traveled to Dundalk Ireland and found many of my relatives buried in the same cemetary and in the same exact burial plot. The ancestors birth dates ranged from about 1660 to 1830. The strange thing was that there were many relatives from the 1600's and early 1700's, but then there was a gap of several generations before another husband and wife appeared in the same plot.
Specifics are as follows:
All appear in plot 430/430a in Castletown Old Graveyard in Dundalk. The plot is within a crumbling walled church structure (not found with most other graves in the grassy area surrounding the old church structure). Several other surnames that are related to us are also found in the walled church structure (Callan, McEntegart)
Oldest is Patrick McArdle from Forkhill (born abt. 1660)
Patrick's children were:
- Edward McArdle (1698-1778) and wife Lettice (1712-1768)
- Philip McArdle (1703-1781) and daughter Mary Ann (1734-1780) and Mary Ann's husband Patrick Nugent (b abt 1732)
- Ellinor McArdle (1711-1787) and husband Patrick Fitzsimons (b abt. 1715)
- James McArdle (1682-1711)
There is then a gap in generations, but then my great-great grandparents are in the same plot:
- Robert McArdle (1830-1881)
- Margaret Mary Callan (1830-1909)
My questions are:
1) How were the burial plots controlled at the time?
2) Is there any significance to many generations being buried in the same plot as opposed to in separate plots? Any significance to being buried within the church structure as opposed to the grassy area outside the structure?
3) What explanation could there be for several generations to be buried in the plot, then a gap of generations buried somewhere else, then another generation buried in the same original plot? I have no reason to believe any interim relatives lived anywhere other than in the Dundalk area.
Jack McArdle
Jack McArdle
Tuesday 25th Aug 2020, 09:29PMMessage Board Replies
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Hello Jack, I do not know the answer but imagine it was the Penal Laws which basically applied to all non Protestant people who were not Anglican or the established Church of Ireland, you can Google the information but here is a list from one site http://sites.rootsweb.com/~irlker/penallaws.html
The Laws started to be eased toward the end of the 18th century and finally in 1829 at the behest of Daniel O'Connell Catholic Emancipation was achived. This is why there are not church records for the 1700s for RC, there are exceptions in certain areas in the late 1700s but a lot of church records for RC only commence in around 1820 or later.
You did well to find all those records in the graveyard, I am not aware that this place has been transcribed There is a good site on Louth here, http://www.jbhall.clahs.ie/index.html
There are some Louth and Dundalk pages on FB dealing with genealogy and old photos, also the County Louth History Society (CLAHS) who run the above site have published a journal since 1904 which can be accessed on J Stor, you get free access if you join society and the Journal each year, about €18 I think but no guarantee on hte information you will find will be relevant.
I toured monastery ruins nearby here in Louth and the guide explained that the wealthy paid to be buried near the altar, the story was the gates of Heaven would open for only a short period and those buried closest to the altar were most likely to get in during the open period, so much for equality, so they were wealthy or held in high regard.
One of the duties of the Established Church was to bury the dead, so imagine dissenters were buried were it suited them, catholics and protestants were often buried in the same graveyard, in Drogheda here the ANglican records are online and often you just see a name and dissenter written on the transcript.
I have no learning to be taken as Gospel but it appears to be it was probably a mix of the politics of the time and the requirement not to display your religion too openly, it was in this period of the 1700s the so called Scotch Irish went to America, having come here earlier to escape the crackdown in Scotland.
To find records as you did in Irish terms is really good, you could try the library or county archives to see if they can assist with any information they may have, they are here. https://www.louthcoco.ie/en/services/library/genealogy-research-sources/ you will find a separate section for the Archives with an email also.
Regards
Pat
St Peters Louth, IrelandXO Volunteer
Wednesday 26th Aug 2020, 10:42PM -
Thank you. This was very helpful.
Jack McArdle
Jack McArdle
Thursday 27th Aug 2020, 11:02PM